


Run For Your Life!

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Drug Use Mentioned, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-17
Updated: 2015-05-17
Packaged: 2018-03-31 00:48:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3958186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something goes wrong during a weekend's camping</p>
            </blockquote>





	Run For Your Life!

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Sentinel Thursday to the prompt 'fireplace'

They were wakened by a terrified scream.

Jim sat up, seeing a flickering light through the tent wall. Crawling forward he unzipped the tent... to see the forest in front of the small camp site burning.

Beside one of the other tents a girl stood, hands to her mouth, and there was no doubt in Jim's mind that she was the screamer. Indeed, he had noticed her earlier in the day, registered her age at about fifteen, and wondered why she had come camping, because her clothes were totally unsuited for a weekend in the wild.

Even as he turned to get some clothes on, Jim registered that people were beginning to emerge from the three other tents on the site. There was, however, no sign of the girl's companion, a young man a year or so older.

They were both far too young to be camping on their own.

Beside him, Blair was already dressed. "Chief, go and check on the girl in the next tent - there's no sign of the guy who was with her."

"Right." Blair scrambled out of their tent as Jim began to haul on his clothes.

There was no question that they would just have to abandon pretty well everything. However, he took a few seconds to push their sleeping bags into one rucksack, then dragged it and Blair's backpack with him as he, too, left the tent.

Most of the campers were already running for their cars, ignoring the girl - and Blair, who was already crawling into the tent.

As he approached the girl, Jim saw the traces left by fire leading from the badly-built fireplace in front of the tent. So - it was their cooking fire that had started this blaze.

"You all right, Miss?"

"Yes - but my brother... " She sounded to be on the verge of hysteria. 

Blair backed out of the tent, dragging a limp figure.

"He won't waken," she sobbed.

"He's alive," Blair said, "but he's out cold. " He looked at the girl. "Did he take some drugs tonight?"

"Yes," she whispered. "He decided to take the chance to try something while we were out here away from our parents. He wanted me to try too, but I said no."

"Sensible girl," Blair said. He glanced at Jim, then wordlessly took the packs, leaving Jim to haul the unconscious boy over one shoulder. "Come on," he said to her.

Jim dumped the boy in the bed of the truck and headed for the driver's door; Blair threw the two packs in beside him, then pushed the girl into the seat beside Jim and clambered in too. He had his cell phone out even as Jim accelerated away from the blaze - unfortunately the road curved so that it passed in front of the area that was burning, and spreading rapidly. It was possible that one of the other campers had raised the alarm, but he wasn't going to assume it. The young couple's car was left where it was parked; he could have driven it to safety, but finding the keys - he was sure it was the boy who was the driver - would have wasted time they didn't have. As it was, they passed the head of the fire just before it crossed the track.

Nobody before Blair had reported the fire. Well, with luck it would be stopped before it did too much damage, and they could always come back in a couple of days to see if their tent had survived.

Jim drove straight to Cascade General; the boy was too deeply unconscious for his liking, and he guessed that the youngster, inexperienced with drugs, had seriously overdosed.

On consideration, he hadn't asked the boy's name; if the hospital wanted to report him for drug misuse, that was up to the staff there. But from the little she had said, he liked the sister, and felt a surprising amount of sympathy for her.

She chose to stay at the hospital with her brother. Blair said quietly, "Look after yourself, and do what you did this time - stay away from drugs. And try to persuade your brother to do the same."

She nodded. "After seeing Bob's reaction... definitely. And I think he'll have learned a lesson. 

"Thank you both. I think you saved our lives. Will... will you tell me your names? I think my parents will want to thank you too."

"Ellison and Sandburg," Jim said. "If they want to contact us, Major Crime, Cascade PD."

"You're cops?"

"For our sins," Blair said dryly. Jim grinned.

They watched her entering the hospital, then drove off.

Home had never sounded so good.


End file.
